Teaching Hour Presentations

Moderator: Vince Ferlini

10:45-11:05

Andrew Perry, Springfield College

Abstract: As an undergraduate math student I was typically graded via 3-4 tests (worth around 90% of the grade) and homework (worth just 10%). For the first 20 years of teaching, I set up my grades in much the same way. In recent semesters, though, I've felt the need to alter that pattern: students today at my college don't test as well as those of the past (to put it kindly). On the other hand, they expect lenient and flexible grading, which most of my colleagues offer. In this talk I will discuss initiatives with which I've experimented to achieve certain objectives. My college still gets some excellent students, and they need to be challenged and inspired. The majority of students need to be nudged in the direction of attending class, participating in class at least a little, doing homework, and studying for exams as long as it takes to master the material. They need to be rewarded with solid grades for having succeeded in these areas to a reasonable extent. In this talk I will discuss how I'm trying to set course policies and standards to achieve the desired outcomes, and hope that my experience will be of some benefit to others. In addition, I'll discuss course policy changes that I've made in response to the pandemic.

Shannon Lockard, Bridgewater State University

Abstract: The first time I allowed students to have unlimited rewrites for a proof-writing assignment was in an upper-level Geometry course. For the first few semesters that I did this, the time commitment was reasonable since I didn’t require all students to complete every problem. In more recent years however, I’ve started requiring students in this class to write and revise ALL problems we tackle in the course, while still allowing them as many times as necessary to write a “perfect” proof. I’ve also started allowing unlimited proof rewrites in other courses at a lesser extent. You might be thinking, “that’s a lot of time for grading!” Well, you’re right. It takes a lot of time, sometimes an overwhelming amount of time. But I’m stuck in this place between wanting to reclaim some of my time and being committed to this amount of proof rewriting because of how I’ve seen student proof writing skills improve. I don’t have the perfect method of doing this, but each semester I work on making this a little better for myself. I’ll share some of the strategies I’ve used to streamline the process, what I’m still struggling with, and invite you all to share your ideas.